6 Powerful Herbs for Candida Overgrowth

Candida overgrowth is a widespread and common health issue that often goes undiagnosed. In this article we outline 6 powerful herbs that kill candida, which can be combined into a candida tea and consumed daily, to aid in combatting candida overgrowth.

What is Candida Albicans?

Candida is a fungus, a form of yeast that lives in your mouth and intestines in small amounts. Its duty is to help with digestion and nutrient absorption; part of your body’s normal gut microflora. More Info Here.

What causes Candida Overgrowth?

However when there are other infections, parasites, bacteria or illness present, it can lay the groundwork for candida to overgrow to unhealthy levels. Left unchecked candida can begin to damage your gut cell wall, allowing bacteria biofilms to adhere to your cell wall where they can wreak havoc. Candida can adapt itself to survive hard environments and attacks, by transforming into an elongated hyphal cell which can permeate the guy lining, causing leaky gut.

How Candida Overgrowth Promotes Disease and Illness

The ability of Candida to adapt and permeate the gut lining, causing leaky gut and also being able to enter the bloodstream, has a multi pronged effect:

1. Once in the blood stream candida can invade other tissues and grow to a full body problem – colonizing the skin, mouth ears, thyroid, reproductive organs and more.
2. Leaky gut allows dangerous and poisonous bacteria to seep into the blood stream causing a plethora of health issues. When food isn’t properly digested and bacteria seeps through your gut into your blood, your immune system attacks it and you can develop allergies to foods you weren’t allergic to before. These newly developed food allergies further exacerbate the problem by causing inflammation, which promotes disease and illness.
3. The afformentioned effects can throw hormones completely out of balance
4. The body’s immune system may begin attacking tissues infected by Candida, this can lead to various autoimmune issues, and other diseases or illness.

Candida Overgrowth and Auto-Immune Diseases

If you have serious health conditions such as autoimmune diseases, you may suspect Candida could be to blame. However candida often becomes overgrow, only because there are other infections, bacteria, fungus, illness, etc which allows it to go from being a beneficial part of your gut microbiome, into an invasive yeast that is detrimental to your health. You should contact your medical practitioner (Internists for adults are best) and analyze your medical history, obtain various tests and root out anything else that may have weakened your immune system and permitted candida to become overgrown.

• Get an h-pylori test
• Get a stool test
• Get a food allergies test and start avoiding foods which you’re highly allergic too
• Test blood for vitamin deficiencies and begun supplementing to remedy them
• Get a heavy metals test
• If you have root canals consider getting them removed
• Check your home for toxins such as black mold, asbestos, chemicals, etc

How to Test for Candida Overgrowth

Most of these tests can be administered by your local holistic / functional medicine doctor:

1. IgG, IgA and IgM Candida Antibodies Test – You can obtain a test for IgG, IgA and IgM candida antibodies at most labs, these high antibody levels indicate your immune system is reacting to candida overgrowth somewhere in your body. If you obtain a ELISA for food allergies test, it includes a candida antibodies test as a bonus.
2. Stool Test (Comprehensive – Cost $600-$800+) – Probably the most accurate and comprehensive method for testing candida overgrowth. It involves sending your poop to a lab where it is directly analyzed for candida levels. Make sure it’s a comprehensive (not a basic), stool test. This test usually also has the perk of determining the species of yeast and offering suggestions which treatments will be the most effective.
3. Urine Organic Dysbiosis – This test detects D-Arabinitol, a waste product of Candida overgrowth. An elevated test means an overgrowth of yeast. This test will determine if there is Candida overgrowth in your upper gut or small intestines.

If you get a test back and your candida overgrowth is off the charts, contacting your physician and consider taking antibiotics to address the candida overgrowth. Once candida overgrowth has begun infecting other tissues and causing disease or auto immune conditions it has become a serious issue, and you may need the big guns (antibiotics) to deal with it swiftly. You can Use these herbs afterwards to continue naturally combatting the candida overgrowth..

6 Powerful Herbs that Kill Candida

1. Pao D’arco for Candida
2. Peppermint for Candida
3. Lemongrass for Candida
4. Ginger for Candida
5. Cinnamon for Candida
6. Star Anise for Candida

1. Pao D’arco for Candida | Herbs that Kill Candida

Pau D’arco (Tabebuia avellanedae) is a massive canopy tree of the Amazon rainforest. Its inner bark and heartwood are made into a tea and used for all kinds of bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections.

The pau d’arco tree has shown a lot of promise in the treatment of Candida infection. It’s been shown to directly inhibit 11 different species of candida — including the most common drug-resistant strain Candida albicans.

Pau D’arco has even been tested against drug-resistant candida strains of candida where pharmaceutical treatments have failed. The results are so far very promising.

Note: Pao d’arco can be a bit resistant to heat. That is why in preparing this tea I recommend you use fresh boiling hot water, and put it in a thermos, allowing it to steep for 15 mins to allow maximum extraction of compounds inside the herbs.

2. Peppermint for Candida | Herbs that Kill Candida

Peppermint oil has shown promising yeast fighting activity in therapeutic dosages. The Tehran University of Medical Sciences conducted research for alternative approaches to vaginitis in 2011 and found that peppermint displayed anti-candida effects. In 2010, Journal of Microbiology, Immunology and Infection published research where, out of 30 plant oils, peppermint and eucalyptus demonstrated the most effective antifungal properties at .12% and .15% concentration. Peppermint, spearmint, and thyme were shown to have stronger antifungal activity than bifonazole (the commercial fungicide) in a 2009 article published by Molecules as well as in research published by the Journal of Ethnopharmacology in 2005.

Here we are using hot water extraction of peppermint tea leaves, to obtain the health benefits of the essential oil compounds inside.

• Peppermint is antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal.
• Peppermint essential oil is naturally drawn into the cell membrane of candida yeast, helping to wipe it out and fight infection.
• Depending on the dose, the essential oil in peppermint leaf may completely block the formation of biofilm.

3. Lemongrass for Candida | Herbs that Kill Candida

Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus.) is a perennial plant that has sharp leaves and is similar in appearance to grass. It prefers tropical and subtropical areas to grow in; and, can be found in India, China, and other areas of Southeast Asia.

The Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases, published one very interesting study of lemongrass essential oil’s interaction with various strains of Candida that typically arrest the health of humans. This study focused on 4 strains of Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, and other less prevalent Candida species. Interestingly enough, a common conventional fungicidal drug, nystatin, was also studied on these same fungi.

The study showed that a few milliliters of lemongrass oil was very effective at inhibiting all the various types of Candida. Compared to nystatin, lemongrass essential oil was typically at least twice as effective as nystatin. This indicates there is no real need to use a conventional, potentially dangerous, prescription drug for mycosis. It is highly unlikely, that a yeast species other than those studied in the aforementioned research, would attack your body. Nearly all vaginal yeast infections are a result of one of the species of Candida studied by these scientists.

4. Ginger for Candida | Herbs that Kill Candida

Ginger is the rhizome of a small flowering plant.  Its been used for centuries predominantly in Asia as both food and medicine. Ginger is commonly used by Chinese Medicine practitioners due to it’s powerful anti-fungal properties!

Research has shown that an extract of ginger has antimicrobial potential against candida. As a result, simply adding it to your meals or consuming in tea form may be beneficial for inhibiting the growth of candida.

Further research has shown that ginger extract can help to inhibit the formation of candida biofilms which are used by candida in order to avoid being eliminated;  biofilms are what make getting rid of candida so difficult. This opportunistic fungus oftentimes shelters in these biofilms for protection from both antibiotics and the body’s immune system. Luckily, ginger can help prevent the formation of these biofilms which gives the body’s immune system a better chance of eliminating this pathogenic fungus.

• Digestion – Ginger is renowned for it’s ability to improve digestion and improve the overall health of your gut microbiome. Research has shown that ginger can help improve symptoms in those dealing with poor digestion by accelerating gastric emptying. Ginger helps activate the vagus nerve, which stimulates production of more stomach acid to breakdown foods, which also helps to sterilize the intestines.
• Nausea – Candida can cause nausea in some people, mainly due to high amounts of toxic byproducts which it releases into the body. Research has found that ginger can help prevent nausea and vomiting due to pregnancy, as well as chemotherapy.
• Anti-Inflammatory – Ginger is a powerful anti-inflammatory, commonly used in chinese medicine to help combat pain and other inflammatory conditions. Individuals with Candida overgrowth often suffer from intestinal and whole body inflammation, due to toxic byproducts which build-up and overload detoxification pathways. Research has shown that ginger can help treat a wide range of anti-inflammatory responses in the body and can even reduce muscle pain after intense physical activity.

5. Cinnamon for Candida | Herbs that Kill Candida

Cinnamon powder made from bark has anti-fungal properties. Cinnamon bark contains primarily three chemicals: trans-cinnamaldehyde, eugenol, and linalool. The phytochemicals in cinnamon bark are the reason why it is effective at fighting Candida. If you have cinnamon sticks, you can boil them in water and make a tea.

Research published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2013, 13:275), showed essential oil derived from Cinnamon zeylanicum bark contains primarily trans-cinnamaldehyde, eugenol, and linalool. These three chemicals comprise 82.5% of the total composition of the essential oil. Trans-cinnamaldehyde is the constituent that comprises the bulk of the cinnamon bark oil, accounting for approximately 49.9–62.8% of the total amount of bark oil. The study results were placed on a chart, which showed many tests of cinnamon against various fungal and bacterial pathogens. Included in the chart are many different species of Candida. Even multi-drug resistant (MDR) Candida albicans was susceptible to cinnamon.

Additional Research in a 2012 study published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Review [2012, 16:125–129], took bark from Cassia cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) and the more common “true cinnamon tree” bark (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), and tested these two bark’s capabilities to inhibit Candida albicans. The powdered bark of these two cinnamon species were diluted to small concentrations of their weight in the total solution. The study found that a solution containing just 4% cinnamon powder from both types of cinnamon radically inhibited Candida albicans development. True cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum; the kind you find labeled as just “powdered cinnamon” in the grocery store) worked better than Cassia cinnamon at inhibiting Candida albicans. The following chart was taken from the study and shows these two types of cinnamon labeled “Cz” for true cinnamon, and “Cc” for Cassia cinnamon. The chart shows how many days various concentrations of these spices stopped Candida from growing. As you can see, just small concentrations of both cinnamon types were able to arrest the growth of Candida albicans for many days; even possibly permanently.

A 2012 study published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Review [2012, 16:125–129].  The study took bark from Cassia cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) and the more common “true cinnamon tree” bark (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) and tested these two bark’s capabilities to inhibit Candida albicans.  The powdered bark of these two cinnamon species were diluted to small concentrations of their weight in the total solution.  The study found that a solution containing just 4% cinnamon powder from both types of cinnamon radically inhibited Candida albicans development.  True cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum; the kind you find labeled as just “powdered cinnamon” in the grocery store) worked better than Cassia cinnamon at inhibiting Candida albicans.  The following chart was taken from the study and shows these two types of cinnamon labeled “Cz” for true cinnamon, and “Cc” for Cassia cinnamon.  The chart shows how many days various concentrations of these spices stopped Candida from growing.  As you can see, just small concentrations of both cinnamon types were able to arrest the growth of Candida albicans for many days; even possibly permanently.  Other spices used in the study against this species of Candida are also listed at the bottom of the chart.

6. Star Anise for Candida | Herbs that Kill Candida

Star anise is a spice made from the fruit of the Chinese evergreen tree Illicium verum and has a subtle licorice flavor.  Star anise extract effectively fights fungal infections, particularly yeast infections the parasitic fungi Candida. The way anise seed helps with a Candida overgrowth is twofold. It naturally deters harmful organisms, including Candida, helping to keep it in balance.

Secondly, anise helps balance your blood sugar. It does this by stimulating the pancreas. The pancreas produces insulin and regulates the body’s blood sugar level. Anise’s active ingredient, anethole, activates enzymes that help the pancreas promote balanced blood sugar levels; particularly effective against Candida albicans, which feeds on sugar.

Star anise is an impressive source of several powerful bioactive compounds — all vital contributors to good health. The most valuable component of star anise may lie within its dense supply of flavonoids and polyphenols. These may primarily be responsible for the spice’s broad applications and medicinal benefits. Some of the major health-promoting compounds found in star anise, which together may contribute to it’s antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties include:

• Linalool
• Quercetin
• Anethole
• Shikimic acid (used in flu medication Tamiflu)
• Gallic acid
• Limonene
• Star anise also contains essential vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A, B vitamins and C, and minerals iron, calcium and phosphorus.

Note: Star anise must be steeped in water over 91°C (boiling water) in order to effectively extract it’s beneficial compounds including shikimic acid. Also the compounds such as shikimic acid break down shortly after being extracted, therefore Ensure you let the tea bag steep in freshly boiled water over 91°C for 5-15 mins, then remove and consume the tea within a few hours.

Star Anise – Antiviral

The shikimic acid extracted from Star Anise has anti-viral properties, and in fact is one of the main ingredients in Tamiflu, a popular medication for the treatment of influenza.

Star Anise – Antifungal

Star Anise is a rich source of the flavonoid anethole which is responsible for it’s strong liquorish flavor, and possesses powerful antifungal properties.

• Some agricultural research has found that trans-anethole derived from star anise may inhibit the growth of pathogenic fungi in certain edible crops
• Test-tube research indicates that other bioactive compounds found in star anise essential oil, like terpene linalool, may suppress biofilm and cell wall formation of infectious fungi in humans

Star Anise – Antibacterial

• Research has revealed that star anise extract is as effective as antibiotics against multiple drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria.
• Test-tube studies have also shown that bioactive compounds in star anise may be effective in treating urinary tract infections caused by different bacteria
• A separate study revealed star anise extract to be somewhat effective in reducing the growth of E. coli on a petri dish; though less so then known antibiotic treatments.

7. Xylitol for Candida | Herbs that Kill Candida

Xylitol is a natural compound found in: berries, mushrooms, sugar cane and other fruits and vegetables. Xylitol contains far less carbohydrates than table sugar and is around 50% less sweet. It also has a significantly lower glycemic rating, which means that it metabolizes more slowly in your body. It is often used by diabetics to help maintain stable blood sugar levels.

Because Candida thrives off sugar and most sweeteners (including most sugar alcohols), it is difficult to satisfy sweet cravings. However Xylitol, a sugar alcohol, is one of the only sweeteners with which research shows has powerful antifungal activity against Candida albicans. Xylitol’s low glycemic index and low carbohydrate content make it unlikely to feed your Candida yeast, it will help to regulate your blood sugar and allow your probiotics and antifungals to kill the Candida yeast.

Another study in 2011 found that Xylitol restricts the production of acetaldehyde, one of the main byproducts of Candida. So using Xylitol as your sweetener may even reduce your Candida symptoms or lessen the chance of Candida Die-Off.

Other benefits of Xylitol against Candida include:

• Low Glycemic Index
• A teaspoon of Xylitol contains 9 calories, vs. 16 calories for normal sugar
• Xylitol contains far fewer carbohydrates than normal sugar
• It is a 100% natural sweetener
• Xylitol does not have unpleasant long-term side effects like Aspartame-based sweeteners
• It can restrict the production of acetaldehyde, one of Candida’s main byproducts

Candida Killer Tea | Herbs that Kill Candida

These 6 powerful herbs that kill candida are combined into a pre-made tea called “Candida Killer Tea”, that you can order and drink daily just like you would any other tea. Hand-made in Canada, using organic herbs and all-natural, unbleached tea bags.

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The products and statements made about specific products on this article have not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. All information provided on this website or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional. You should not use the information on this website for the diagnosis or treatment of any health problem. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new vitamins, supplements, diet, or exercise program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem. Any testimonials on this website are based on individual results and do not constitute a guarantee that you will achieve the same results.